Friday, July 06, 2007

Publisher of the Year: Adastra Press

The Contemporary Poetry Review just announced its choice for (poetry) publisher of the year -- offered here in its entirety as taken from www.cprw.com/books06.htm :

The CPR Awards: 2006

The Best Books of 2006

Publisher of the Year: Adastra Press

With no web presence and almost no publicity, Adastra Press of Easthampton, Massachusetts has quietly built a solid reputation for itself as a publisher of short-run, handcrafted limited editions. Gary Metras continues the ancient and virtually lost practice of hand setting type and hand-sewing the gatherings. Independent-minded, they represent the best in small press poetry publishing. Without bluster, grand mission statements, or corporate backing, they continue the slow, serious work of publishing in a world swiftly adapting to strictly digital means of textual reproduction. The last book that we received from Adastra ended with this note: "Production lasted from September to November 2006 as an unusually mild autumn kept trout actively feeding on the printer's favorite dry flies." Simply gorgeous work.

Runner-up: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

A quick scan of our list this year will confirm that Farrar, Straus and Giroux still rules the roost. Under the stewardship of editor Jonathan Galassi, who must have the finest eye and ear (and rolodex) of any poetry publisher in the country, FSG deserves to rack up a second win for consistent quality and vision but our heart belongs to letterpress work this year."

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Kingdom Books is a mystery review site based in northeastern Vermont. Beth Kanell, who became an ardent mystery collector with her late husband Dave, writes the reviews here of mysteries and crime fiction, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle (as well as an author of Vermont-based mysteries and poetry; see her author blog here).

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